Thursday, December 25, 2008

A round-up of Christmas messages

Optimism and the Queen's fear

A friend of mine called Max used to be popular for his incurable optimism. Storms would always give way to sunshine. A shit casual job would turn into a wonderful career opportunity and the crappiest of venues would piss all over Wembley Arena. A handy outlook, most certainly over Christmas.

And in fact this is the spirit of today's leader in the Independent (There are still reasons for cheer this Christmas) which is a spectacularly optimistic way of reading the current crisis. For example, "Here in Britain, we live in a more inclusive and equal society than ever before. Women are no longer formally treated as second-class citizens. Gay people have the right to enter into civil partnerships". You can almost picture the workers at Jaguar, Woolworths and Zavvi all cheering.

The Queen's Christmas message instead informed us that "this year is a more sombre occasion for many. Some of those things which would once have been taken for granted suddenly seem less certain". She was probably referring to Prince William who, while announcing he's spending Christmas in Australia this year, also managed a sombre night out with his brother and close friends, spending "at least $20,000 on booze".